Relentless storms leave at least 1 dead, over a million without power across Midwest and Mid-Atlantic

A long-lasting line of storms with damaging winds — known as a derecho — tore across the Midwest Tuesday while other powerful storms hit the central Appalachians. It’s the latest in a multiday severe weather and flash flood threat that has killed at least one person and knocked out power for over one million homes and businesses.

Clusters of storms have sparked severe thunderstorm, flash flood and tornado warnings across these regions, including in Chicago, much of Tuesday. At least two tornadoes were observed across Illinois and Iowa, with more likely to be confirmed later in the week as soon as the weather allows survey teams to investigate.

Multiple rounds of storms will fire up and track over these same areas over the next several days with extreme rainfall rates that could deliver more than a month’s worth of flooding rain in hours.

Destructive winds: The derecho brought wind gusts over 75 mph across a 300-mile-long stretch of the Midwest, from northeast Iowa to northern Indiana. Hurricane-force wind gusts over 90 mph were clocked in parts of Chicago, and Columbus, Ohio, experienced gusts over 80 mph as the storms tore through those areas. Additional clusters of storms through this evening could down trees and knock out power from Indiana and Ohio to eastern Kentucky and the central Appalachians.

Death in Indiana: A 4-year-old child died in southeastern Indiana on Tuesday after a tree fell on a house in Geneva Township, according to Cody Low, chief deputy for the Jennings County sheriff’s department. The child was “either entrapped or injured” when the 911 call came in around 3:30 p.m., but when responders arrived they found the child dead in the home, Low told CNN.

Widespread power outages: More than one million homes and businesses across Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia were without power Tuesday evening, according to PowerOutage.us. Outages in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio alone topped 900,000.

Flash flood emergency: Water rescues were reported Tuesday morning in Perry County, Ohio, the state’s emergency management director told CNN. Videos on social media showed rescuers in rafts navigating powerful currents of water coursing through the streets of Crooksville, a village in the county. A rare flash flood emergency – the highest level of flash flood warning – was issued there early Tuesday after about a month’s worth of rain fell in 3 hours. New rounds of heavy rain arrived later in the morning, threatening to worsen the flooding.

Rescues in Pennsylvania: Flooding damaged homes, vehicles, roads and a railroad around Confluence, Pennsylvania, local officials said. Ten people were rescued from a flooded home near Confluence Tuesday morning, fire chief Tyler Byrd told CNN. Another person was also rescued from the roof of a vehicle, he said. The area saw 3 to 5 inches of rain over several hours early Tuesday.

Hundreds forced from homes amid Ohio flooding

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine declared a state of emergency in both Perry and Muskingum counties Tuesday afternoon and activated a National Guard high-water rescue unit for those areas. He said he expects other counties will be added to the emergency declaration as the storms play out in coming days.

One person died in Roseville, which straddles both counties, after suffering an emergency and first responders were unable to reach them, DeWine said at a news conference Tuesday. Roseville “is completely surrounded by water,” the governor added, while stressing that the multiday threat from the storms applies across Ohio.

“We are in a very dangerous weather situation that really involves all of Ohio. It is unusual to see this, but danger can be anywhere in the state,” DeWine warned.

As of Tuesday morning, around 200 people were forced to leave or were unable to access their homes after floodwater rose 6 to 10 feet in low-lying areas of Perry County.